Pivoted lever crown cap remover



April 15, 1952 sp c 2,593,358

PIVOTED LEVER CROWN CAP REMOVE-R Filed April 5, 1949 FIG. 1

FIG. 3

I, 7 777???? H A! j a L Z //\/VE/v7"0 e Emu. M. 5FPJC r1 AT 0/9/VE) Patented Apr. 15, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Myinvention relates. to impmrementsirubottle openers generally but, more; especially: to those bottles that arehermetically sealedwith a: crown type, of cap. and has among, its; gcneizah objects; theproductionof an opener that. will be simple inconstruction and operations relati.vely menpensive, of fewparts, that. will; 1385 extremely safe, in operation so as to minimize. any inj ury to. the. hand of the. operator during, such; remorali, and. that will be strong and sturdy.. andiwhiohawilli be; otherwisesatisfactory and efilcient for usewhereverdeemed applicable.

One of the principal objects. of: this; invention is to so construct abottle: opener. theta-slippage, and accidental cutting, scratching, and. similar. injury to the hand is. minimizedin the'operation. of uncapping a bottle.

Another important. objectof. the inventiont is todevise an opener of this kind; that; wilLseat, firmly. and snugly against. the bottle; neck, to

permit of ready andeasy; operationof? theiopener: so as to reduce the amountof manual; efiort. ordinarily employed. for such an operation.

An added object of my invention is to provide, in a bottle opener of thekind; described, means for deforming the bottle cap so as, to lessen its frictional engagement with thetop-endiofithe.

bottle, substantially simultaneously? with the lifting operation. of the cap; and to thereby reduce the effort needed to effect removal.

Yetanother object of the invention is tbl so construct a bottle opener oftheasort descr1bed;-. that will have means to 'engage-- between. thebottle neck and the annular rim of the crown cap and which will substantially follow the contour of the bottle thereat, in the operation of lifting the removing tool, as to retain proper footing of the tool during operation of the same.

Many other objects and advantages of the construction herein shown and described will be obvious to those skilled in the art to which this invention appertains, as will be more clearly apparent from the disclosures hereinafter given.

To this end, my invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement and combination of parts herein shown and described. and as will be more clearly hereinafter pointed out in the claims that are appended.

In the drawings, wherein like reference characters indicate like or corresponding parts throughout the views,

Figure l is a side elevation of the tool as applied to a capped bottle;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the tool itself;

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the bottle can, both as it appears initially and. as

deformed by the tool to unseat the cap from its portion of a. well-known and universally used bottle whose neck portion is indicated at I. These bottles are; most. often employed for cooled: or refrigerated liquids; and need not be further described, except perhaps to add that they have a. pair of radially projecting beads or rings 2 and: 3, one immediately beneath the other,. the upper bead or lip being at the terminal end of the bottle neck and the other ring merging into.

the topmost bead. The topmost bead 2 is knownin thetrade as the crown finish bead or lip,. because of the fact that the crown cap is forced thereon to seal the bottle. The lower ring is. somewhat wider than the top ring. and acts. as

a,v reinforcing rib for the bottle thereat, as well as forming a limit stop against movement of.

the cap'therepast.

The crown cap is a sheet metal stamping to have. a covering or plate portion 4, bounded by an annular flange or rim 5 that is corrugated to.

permitof the necessary flexing of the rim in sealing, and may be provided with some sort of.

a resiliently compressible gasket fitted into the plate portion as indicated generally at 6.

Itis not a rare occurrence to cut, scratch or otherwise bruise ones hand when using a tool to detach the crown cap from such a bottle, and the tool which is now to be described is designed principally to avoid such accidents, as well as to make opening easier.

The tool is so constructed as to engage the cap at substantially its central portion, inwardly from its neck-engaging edge, and to engage the rim of the cap and act as a wedge between said rim and the adjacent neck portion of the bottle.

Such a tool may be made in two parts, if so desired and as shown most clearly in Fig. 2, each member having a jaw at one end and a handle at the other end, said members being pivotally interconnected at 1 intermediate their ends.

The tool parts or members have their trailing ends to form handles 89, for operating the tool, the jaw element of one such member being indicated at Ill and the cooperating jaw of the other member being indicated at ll.

Said jaw elements have protuberances or projections I2 and I3, respectively, directed toward one another somewhat as shown, the protuberance l2 on the Jaw being at a greater distance from the pivotal axis of the tool than is the projection l3, so that as the latter abuts against the neck of the bottle immediately below the cap, the other projection I2 will engage against approximately the central portion or area of the cap, the latter projection being sufiiciently smaller than the diameter of the cap to enable the cap to be distorted or deformed downwardly into the mouth of the bottle somewhat as indicated diagrammatically in Fig. 3.

The projection i3 is preferably in the shape of a flange whose bottle-contacting face is curved not only in the same curvature as the ring 3 at its engagement with the same, but is curved in the vertical direction too, so that the face of the projection or flange l3 will have substantially the same contour as that of the ring 3.

The upper edge of the projecting flange is tapered in thickness or sharpened at M, and this flange is of a relatively extended bearing about the periphery of the ring 3 so that when the flange is applied against said ring, there is ample seating engagement therebetween to better anchor the tool thereat and minimize slippage.

In operation, the jaws of the tool are applied to the bottle, so that the undermost jaw is in the space between the rim of the cap and the ring 3, immediately below the cap, While the projection l2 bears on approximately the central area of the top of the cap. Pressure is applied to the tool so that the last-mentioned protuberance presses downwardly on the cap to deform or distort the metal thereof, to form it into the shape as indicated generally in dotted lines in Fig. 3 wherein it will be noted that the rim of the cap is sprung away from the head or ring 2, to thereby break the hermetic seal,'this deformation being anywhere from several thousandths of an inch upwardly.

At about the same time, so as to be substan tially simultaneous therewith, the knife edge of the lower jaw acts as a wedge element to work upwardly between the annular rim of the cap and the adjacent ring, to jack it off its seat, said knife flange riding firmly on the short travel on the lower ring required for this stripping of the cap, the lifting together of the handles of the tool completing the removal or" the cap clear of the bottle.

Having thus described my invention, it is obvious that various immaterial modifications may be made in the same without departing from the spirit of my invention; hence I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to the exact form, arrangement, combination and shape of the parts, except is limited by the state of the art to which this invention appertains, and by the claims hereunto appended.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A tool for moving a bottle cap of the crown type and comprising a pair of cooperating movably interconnected elements an end of one of which engages with the central area of the cap and the end of the other element having a sharpened edge positioned to engage between the bottle and the rim of the cap, and handles on said elements for moving said ends together in unis'on against said cap to remove the latter.

2. For a bottle having a neck with a crown finish to receive a crown type cap thereon, and with a reinforcing bead immediately therebelow, atom for removing said cap therefrom and comprising a pair of movably interconnected jaws one of which has a sharpened edge projecting upwardly beyond the adjacent portion thereof to wedge between the bottle and therim of said cap and of a curvature circumferentially of said head substantially equal to that of said bead so as to seat snugly thereagainst, and the other jaw engageable with the top of the cap approximately at its central area. 7

3. For use with a bottle having a neck with a crown finish bead and a reinforcing ring immediately therebelow and adapted to be sealed with a crown type cap, a tool for removing said cap and comprising pivotally interconnected upper and lower jaw means, said upper jaw means to engage and distort the cap to expand the same to loosen it from its seat. and said lower jaw means projecting upwardly beyond the adjacent REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS.

Number h Name Date 1,243,923 Ryczek Dec. 4, 1917 1,736,519 BllChOltZ NOV. 19, 1929 Murdock Oct. 22, 1935' 

